Mother’s Day is coming up, so here’s a whimsical, beautiful, and easy-to-create heart brooch made from decorative buttons and painted gold. My son made one of these for me when he was in kindergarten, and I was amazed at how creative and sophisticated it looked. We even entered it in the kids’ jewelry design competition at the county fair where it won first place! Whenever I wear this brooch, I get compliments on it, and I’m sure most moms would love one of these for a Mother’s Day gift.

To make this craft, you’ll need:

• Assorted decorative buttons and charms
• White glue, like Elmer’s
• Heavy card stock, letter size.
• Gold spray paint
• Bar pins
• Kid-safe scissors
• Heart template (download it here)
• Newspaper

Print out the heart template onto a sheet of card stock and carefully cut out the heart with a pair of scissors. Spread a good amount of glue over the heart. You need to put enough glue on the paper so that the buttons stay put.

Now choose some buttons and arrange them however you like onto the heart. When you’re satisfied with your design, set aside and let it dry. Try to keep little fingers away from it until it’s completely dry and all the buttons stay put.

Take your creation outside or into a well-ventilated room, place it on the newspaper and paint it with the gold spray paint, making sure to get paint into all the nooks and crannies around the buttons so everything is covered. Again, let your brooch dry thoroughly before handling.

When the paint is dry, turn your brooch over and glue a bar pin to the back. As before, make sure you use a healthy amount of glue so the pin stays in place. Let it dry once more and you’re done!

Now you have a beautiful piece of jewelry that any mother would be thrilled to receive on Mother’s Day, or on her birthday or Christmas, too, for that matter.

Happy Mother’s Day to all moms and moms-to-be out there!

On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone tries to wear a bit o’ the green. Last year, we discovered that my daughter didn’t own a single piece of green clothing, so we opened up the crafts bin and created two St. Patrick’s Day crafts that are easy, fun, and above all, green.

The first project we made was St. Patrick’s Day beaded friendship bracelets. These are simple to make and inexpensive, and make the perfect gifts to hand out to your friends on March 17. To make them, you’ll need an assortment of plastic beads, preferably in two shades of green, and green pipe cleaners. You can find these supplies at almost any craft store.

To assemble, string the beads along a strand of pipe cleaner, alternating dark and light green beads. This is a really good tactile activity for little ones.

The length of the pipe cleaner and number of beads necessary will depend on the diameter of the child’s wrist. Leave about an inch of pipe cleaner showing at each end, then twist them together to complete the bracelet. A grownup should snip the ends of the twisted pipe cleaner with a pair of scissors.

My daughter was so proud of her bracelet that she wore it to bed that night and for days afterward. You can also vary this project for other holidays and special occasions. Try red, white, and blue beads for the Fourth of July, for instance, red and pink beads on Valentine’s Day, or orange and black on Halloween.

Another easy St. Patrick’s Day project we made were shamrock necklaces. To make them, you’ll need heavy construction paper (in green, of course), kid-safe scissors, one of the leftover green pipe cleaners from the bracelet project, a hole punch, clear tape or glue, and crayons, markers, paint, or glitter to decorate your necklace.

First, cut out pieces of green construction paper into 1-by-4 inch strips. You’ll need about 20 for each necklace, which you should be able to get out of one letter-sized sheet of construction paper.

Make a paper chain by taping or gluing each strip into a circle.  Now take another piece of construction paper and cut out a large shamrock (get the template here, on which I’ve included several different sizes of shamrock).

Decorate the shamrock with markers, crayons, glitter, or paints. When it’s dry, punch a hole in the top and attach it to the paper chain with a green pipe cleaner.

When you’ve finished with both of your projects, you can proudly display your green at home or at school. Have fun creating these fun projects with your kids.

In our home, the kids love to make their own greeting cards to give out on birthdays and holidays. Valentine’s Day is of course no exception, and this year we created cute and classy heart cards using homemade stamps cut out from vegetables.

Yes that’s right: vegetables. A russet potato, in fact, although you can use other dense and smooth-fleshed veggies like turnips or large carrots. If you can cut a design into it, you can use it!

This card project is really easy and fun, and the kids think it’s neat that they’re using something they usually eat for dinner to create a craft.

For this project, we gathered up:

• 2 or 3 potatoes
• Assorted small heart-shaped cookie cutters
• A sharp paring knife
• White and colored paper
• Paint in assorted colors
• White glue
• Foam craft brushes
• Glitter

To create your potato stamp, cut a potato in half cross-wise, so you have two halves, each with a round end. Push a heart-shaped cookie cutter into the flat round surface of the potato half. Make sure it goes in at least half way so you can get a good heart shape that stands out.

Leave the cookie cutter in place, and, with the paring knife, cut away the potato around the outside of the heart. Leaving the cookie cutter there will assure that you don’t cut through your heart shape. When you’re done, you’ll have a heart standing out from the potato, as in the accompanying photo. Needless to say, these steps should be done by grownups.

Now, you can either cut the heart stamp off the potato (which makes it easier for little fingers to grip) or hold on to the potato half and use the whole thing as the stamp.

Dip a brush into the paint of your choice and lightly brush paint onto the heart shape, then press it onto the paper to make colorful hearts. Make sure you give it a little pressure to thoroughly apply the paint. Alternatively, you can brush the stamp with some white glue, stamp the paper, and then sprinkle with glitter for a beautiful glittery heart.

Let the kids be creative and use their imaginations to create their own unique cards. It may take a little practice to get the technique down, but once you figure it out it’s fun and the cards are really beautiful.

When it’s cold and rainy and the kids can’t play outside, I get out my list of fun, creative, and inexpensive hands-on activities that I know are guaranteed to keep them occupied. This list is an ever-expanding roster of age-appropriate things for kids to do that I’ve collected over the years from school projects and things I’ve found in books, magazines, and online.

Whether they’re arts, crafts, or things to cook up in the kitchen, these projects really keep the kids busy for hours. They’re not just for rainy days, though—they’re great activities for playgroups and parties, too.

Here are three of my and my kids’ favorite rainy day activities:

Make (and play with) homemade playdough.

You probably have the ingredients in your pantry already.

• Combine 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup salt, and 4 teaspoons cream of tartar in a large saucepan
• Add 2 cups water, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and food coloring of your choice.
• Cook over medium heat until the playdough pulls away from the sides of the pan
• Let dough rest on a floured cutting board until cool, then knead for a few minutes until smooth and elastic.

That’s it—now it’s play time! This playdough keeps for a long time in plastic zip-lock bags. Make several batches in different colors. You can even get creative and let kids mix their own unique colors.

Bake some homemade soft pretzels.

Everybody loves to make and eat these, and they’re really easy to make.

• Dissolve 1 envelope dry yeast in ½ cup warm water.
• Add 1 teaspoon honey and 1 teaspoon salt and mix thoroughly.
• Stir in 1 and 1/3 cups all-purpose flour until all ingredients are mixed.
• Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead until smooth.
• Cut pieces of dough and roll into long thin cylinders, then twist into shape (the traditional pretzel shape is the obvious choice, but use your imagination).
• Put pretzels on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Beat an egg with a little water to make an egg wash and brush tops of pretzels, then sprinkle with coarse salt.
• Bake at 425ºF for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes before you eat them.

Plant an indoor garden in the winter months and watch it grow.

Let the kids get their hands dirty as they plant something indoors. Recycle an old jelly or mason jar and fill with potting soil and seeds or a flower bulb. Put it on a windowsill and watch it grow! The kids love to water their plants and nurture them and see how they change from day to day. A clear glass jar allows kids to see the plant’s root structure develop, too. Great ideas for plants include flowers like paperwhites and herbs like thyme and parsley. Beautiful flowers really brighten up the house on gloomy winter days.

Have fun, even if you can’t go outside!

Every January, my kids look forward to celebrating Chinese New Year. They love the colorful decorations, lion dancers, festive food, firecrackers, lucky red envelopes filled with gifts of money, and of course the magnificent golden dragon that appears in the Chinese New Year parade.

Chinese New Year—also known as the Lunar New Year—is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. This year, Chinese New Year falls on January 23, 2012.

Say goodbye at the Year of the Rabbit as it hops away and get ready as the Year of the Dragon prepares to roar in. My kids think that this year is extra special, because it’s the Year of the Dragon and of course the giant golden dragon is always the centerpiece of the parade.

You and your family can celebrate Chinese New Year by making this fun, colorful, and easy paper dragon craft. Use your dragons to decorate the house, or you can even have your own Chinese New Year parade at home!

My kids hung their dragons on the walls in our living room, after parading them through the house. This craft is suitable for all ages, with parental supervision.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Gold stickers or paint (red and gold are traditional colors for Chinese New Year)
• Crepe paper in red, yellow, or orange
• Dragon head template (download here)
• Heavy white paper or card stock (letter size)
• Markers or crayons
• Wooden chopsticks or other thin but sturdy sticks
• Tape
• Paint brushes
• Scissors

Here’s how to make it:

1. Download the template and print out a head for each dragon you want to make on card stock. Children can color the head with markers or crayons. Be colorful and creative!
2. Cut out the dragon’s head.
3. Cut three strips of crepe paper to at least three feet in length. Kids can decorate the crepe paper strips with gold stickers or paint. Make sure you let painted strips dry before handling.
4. Tape the chopstick to the back of the dragon’s head to make a handle
5. Tape the crepe paper strips to the dragon’s head.

Now you’re ready for your dragon parade! Grab hold of the handle and parade your creation around the room. Gung hay fat choy—wishing you good fortune and prosperity!

The month of November is usually time for a wonderful break after Halloween and before the Christmas rush sets in. One of the things we like to do as a family in November is to head outdoors and go on an autumn nature hike.

Here where we live, November offers some of the best weather of the year, so it’s only natural to want to spend time outside. With fall’s golden light, it’s also a great time to take outdoor family photos.

When we go on family nature hikes or walks during the fall, the kids love to collect colorful leaves, pinecones of all shapes and sizes, and acorns to take home. They really have a lot of fun trying to find the perfect fall leaves, and we try to identify what kinds of trees the leaves are from.

I bring a bag for each of the kids to collect their autumn treasures. When we bring them home I pull out a decorative platter and we arrange the best of our leaves and pinecones on it to make a colorful fall display. This makes a great dining table centerpiece or decoration for the coffee table, and it’s become something of a fall tradition in our home. The kids love to show off their handiwork to family and friends, too.

A simple and fun autumn craft project that we also like to do is to make leaf prints from the leaves we bring home. This is an easy project that all ages can do, and the results can be really stunning. You’ll need:

• Leaves of different shapes and sizes
• Construction paper
• Crayons

Lay out a sheet of paper and place a leaf on it, then set another sheet of paper over the leaf (or leaves—you can use more than one if you like). Peel the wrapper off a crayon and rub the side of it over the top sheet of paper. The leaves below will magically appear!

We like to use paper and crayons with rich autumnal colors: red, brown, yellow, or orange. You can use white paper, too, but we find that colorful construction paper gives the best results.

The finished product is suitable for framing, using in a scrapbook, or making into note cards and greeting cards. Happy fall!